The Old Testament is first of the two divisions of Holy Scripture. According to historians, the Old Testament was composed between the 5th century BC and the 2nd century BC, though parts of it, such as the Torah, and Song of Deborah (Judges 5), date back much earlier.

Traditionally the Old Testament is divided into the law books (the Pentateuch and historical books), the Psalms and other wisdom books, and the prophets because of what Christ said in Luke 24:44:

And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be

fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. (KJV)

The term Old Testament itself is a translation of the Latin Vetus Testamentum, from the Greek Ἡ Παλαιά Διαθήκη (hē Palaia Diathēkē), all meaning "The Old Covenant" (or "Testament"). The Latin rendered testament in English originally came from the Latin for "witness" and from there expanded to mean "to make a will"; thus, though it is purported to be synonymous with "covenant," it has a distinct legal flavoring. Further semantic extensions in English have made the English term more ambiguous[1].

The Orthodox Church also numbers among the genuine books of the Old Testament the so-called apocryphal books, literally meaning the "secret" or "hidden" writings. A less Protestant-biased term for these parts of Scripture is the deuterocanonical writings.

The Five Books of the Law

The Five Books of the Law are the first five books of the Old Testament, known jointly as the Pentateuch (Gr. Πεντάτευχος, literally five volumes), and they describe God's creation of the world, the rebellion of Adam and Eve and the fall of man. These books are also called the Books of Moses. They detail the early history of God's people of Israel from the days of Abraham (ca. 2000 BC) right through to the era of Moses (ca. 1250 BC).

Although scholars believe that the Law was not written by the personal hand of Moses, and that the books show evidence of being the result of a number of oral and written traditions and time periods, the Church connects the Law with Moses, the great man of God to whom "the Lord used to speak ... face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (Exodus 33:11).

The Books of History

The second section of the LXX Old Testament is known as the Historical Books. This group covers the history of Israel from the settlement in the promised land of Canaan to the first centuries before Christ.

In the canon of the Orthodox Church—which is generally that of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible—1 & 2 Samuel are called 1 & 2 Kings; and 1 & 2 Kings are called 3 & 4 Kings. Also, the so-called apocryphal books, listed above (I Esdras, II Esdras, Tobit, Judith, I Maccabees, II Maccabees, III Maccabees, IV Maccabees), are considered by the Orthodox as genuine parts of the Bible. The Old Testament apocrypha is a body of writings considered by the non-Orthodox to be of close association with the Bible, but not actually part of its official canonical contents.

The historical books of the Bible were written well after the events described in them actually took place.

Wisdom books

The Wisdom books include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, as well as the Wisdom of Jesus, Son of Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus, and the Wisdom of Solomon from the so-called apocrypha.

Although not technically a wisdom book, the Prayer of Manasseh from the so-called apocrypha, is a penitential prayer of the King of Judah, which for the Orthodox is part of the Bible. (It is included in the Great Compline service of the Orthodox Church.)

Prophets

16 books in the Old Testament are called by the names of prophets, although not necessarily written by their hands. A prophet is one who speaks the word of God by direct divine inspiration, not just one who foretells the future.

Major prophets

Four of the prophetic books are those of the so-called major prophets: